Business School

Owen G Glenn

In 2002, expatriate businessman Owen G Glenn donated $7.5 million to the Business School for the development of premises and facilities.

This generous contribution is believed to be the largest private donation in New Zealand educational history, and was driven by Mr Glenn's belief in the Business School's mission and in the benefits high-quality business education confers on New Zealand business and society. In recognition of this gift the Business School’s complex, opened in early 2008, was named the Owen G Glenn Building.

Owen Glenn followed his initial $7.5 million donation in 2008 with the donation of an additional $500,000 to establish the Barry Spicer and Owen G Glenn PhD Scholarships. These scholarships received matched funding of $250,000.

Mr Glenn is founder, owner and executive chair of OTS Logistics Group. One of the world's largest logistics enterprises, it is a billion dollar revenue company with offices in 105 countries. He has expressed the hope that the global scale of his business achievements might act as inspiration to others.

"Top quality business education is vital to the future success of New Zealand, and I am delighted to be able to help in this way and to be a part of the vision of the Business School and the University of Auckland."

After an initial donation of $100,000 to funded research into the viability of a proposed National Training Centre for High Performance Sport at the Millennium Institute on Auckland's North Shore, Mr Glenn donated a further $1 million with the aim of attracting other private sector donations. In October 2010, he pledged to match other private and business donations by a further $2.75 million, lifting his total donations to the project to $3.85 million.

He supports a number of international charities through the Glenn Family Foundation and helped establish the International SeaKeepers Society. He has financially contributed to the University's South Pacific Centre for Marine Science at Leigh and in 2010 gifted $300,000 for the establishment of a chair in cancer research at the University.

Summary of Owen G Glenn's background

Year

Detail

1940

Born in Calcutta on 19 February.

1952

Family immigrates to New Zealand; attends Balmoral Intermediate and Mt Roskill Grammar.

1961

Works at the Bank of New Zealand.

Overseas experience in Europe/Australia.

1962

Returns to New Zealand; works for TEAL (now Air New Zealand), then Emery Air Freight.

1969

In the UK: joins the Swire Group (included Cathay Pacific Airways). Proposes they form a joint venture company with the Ocean Group, which results in MSAS (McGregor Swire Air Services), later EXCEL Logistics – one of the world’s largest logistical groups.